R.E.M.: Life And How To Live It

R.E.M. are the soundtrack to my life. Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe started out humbly on an independent label, I.R.S., in the early 80’s, gradually building up a bigger and bigger following thanks to constant touring and airplay on college radio. Along with contemporaries such as The Replacements, Husker Du, Black Flag and The Minutemen, they helped pave the way for bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam to eventually find mainstream acceptance. They are a key branch in the Rock n’ Roll family tree, providing a key link from Patti Smith, the Sex Pistols and the Ramones to Radiohead and the Strokes.

Eventually the “little band that could” from Athens, GA became one of the biggest bands in the world, on par with U2, largely thanks to “Losing My Religion.” It still seems pretty mind boggling to me that a song with no real chorus to speak of and whose main instrument is mandolin took the world by storm. If there is a formula for writing hit radio singles, surely this is not it!

R.E.M. ruled the world when alternative rock was at it’s commercial peak. However, when drummer Bill Berry left the band in 1997, R.E.M. slowly descended into becoming the cult band they started as. Unfortunately, their first three post-Berry albums were not garnering as stellar critical reviews as they were used to.

On top of this, they made the cardinal sin of NOT BREAKING UP. In an age where bands like the Pixies, Dinosaur Jr., The Go-Go’s, etc get major press coverage for reuniting, R.E.M. have followed their own muse and stuck it out. In the process, many music critics and fans took R.E.M. for granted and largely ignored Up, Reveal and Around The Sun.

Then something funny happened. No doubt stung by the critical lashings and lukewarm sales of Around The Sun, R.E.M. got hungry again. They ditched the mellow, atmospherics of their most recent albums and decided to get back to basics. They started writing short, guitar heavy songs with a punk edge. Michael Stipe started writing more visceral, angry lyrics. In short, the band got it’s mojo back.

In preparation for their critical and commercial comeback album, 2008’s phenomenal Accelerate, R.E.M. played a 5 night stint at Dublin’s Olympia stadium. Dubbed as “working rehearsals,” R.E.M. played some new songs, most of which wound up on Accelerate, as well 30 or so songs from their back catalogue.

On October 27, R.E.M. are releasing a double CD/DVD with highlights from their 5 nights in Dublin, appropriately called Live At The Olympia. For a big geek like myself, it’s exciting to get a “document” of a band regaining it’s swagger.

Below is a clip of “Living Well Is The Best Revenge” from the collection.

Living Well Is The Best Revenge

http://remhq.com

...submitted by JJ

A Fine Frenzy

I recently stumbled upon a relatively new band from L.A. on Twitter. And I'll be honest... the main reason I checked out this band was because the singer, Alison Sudol, has some fiery red hair and is not exactly hard on the eyes. It must be because I'm part Scottish, but I am a complete sucker for redheads. Especially redheads that can sing. So of course through the years I have had musical affairs with the likes of Shirley Manson, Tori Amos and most recently, Civet.

A FIne Frenzy's debut album, One Cell In The Sea, is primarily piano driven and features outstanding tracks like "Come On, Come Out," "The Minnow & The Trout," and "You Picked Me." However, 15 songs of midtempo piano songs wears a little thin after a half hour or so.

Their upcoming release, A Bomb In A Birdcage, is supposed to be more guitar based and uptempo, which sounds a lot more promising. By the sounds of the first single, "Blow Away," it should be a pretty cool album.

Blow Away

http://www.myspace.com/afinefrenzy

...submitted by JJ

New Rules (of rock n' roll) Vol. 1

Let me tell ya, I LOVE Bill Maher. His show Real Time (I know cool right?) w/ Bill Maher is the best show on television. The last segment of every episode is 'New Rules', and it's always the greatest 6 minutes of intelligent and important comedy I've ever witnessed.

Well... I may not be as smart or as funny as Bill, but I'm easily just as opinionated... so with that, the first installment of a new 4RMUSIC series... that I'll be calling 'New Rules (of rock n' roll)'. (Bill is also more creative at naming things than me) ;-)

In honour of Hump Day, all these new rules have a common theme:

New Rule: Moms, if you buy your 12 year old daughter Miley Cyrus CDs and DVDs, and then let her watch Miley work the pole at the Teen Choice Awards, you aren't allowed to leave nasty messages on my phone when your daughter turns 18 and is doing the same thing in my bedroom.

New Rule: Katy Perry needs to be done with wearing those one piece shorts-and-halter outfits. Hot hot girl, not hot look. Try a mini shirt and a misriff-bearing T or something... yeah it's cliche... yeah it's skanky... yeah it's Brittney (wow I just said the same thing three times), but on you Katy, it'd work... and I promise that the next time you kissed a girl, I'd like it.

New Rule: Chris Martin and Gwenyth Paltrow need to stop having sex. #1 no one needs to picture these to anemic albinos jumping each other's bones (because that's all that's there), and #2, the world doesn't need to be blessed with kids named Tandy or Commodore 64.

New Rule: Kelly Clarkson has to stop releasing singles with sexual overtones. Yuck. Now... I've lived my life, and I assure you there isn't one plain faced chubby girl in the world that wouldn't hook up at every opportunity... and the only time Ms. Clarkson has ever woke up in Vegas, it was under the $1.99 buffet table at Circus Circus.

New Rule: Quit questioning me when I tell you a song is about masturbating. Jackson Browne was not in love with a girl named 'Rosie', Steven Tyler wasn't professing his love for Olympic swimming when he said "back stroke lover always hiding 'neath the covers", Billy Idol couldn't find anyone else in site on a crowded lonely night... so what do you think "my love vibrations" means?!?!?!? and Cyndi Lauper wasn't trying to start a new dance fad called the 'She Bop'. Oh yeah... 'Pump It Up'? Not about cranking the volume on your stereo.

And finally...

New Rule: If you're going to sing about sex, be SEXY about it.
Sex drugs and rock n' roll... right. It only takes a half hour of listening to commercial radio or an hour of surfing indie bands on MySpace to know there's not many getting rock n' roll right, and we live in a day and age where your local Shopper's pharmacist has better shit than your buddy that never sleeps on the other side of town does... but you'd think sex would be pretty tough to wreck.

Apparently not.

Somewhere along the road, sex pretty much left rock n' roll... Through the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, guys wanted to pick up a guitar because they were convinced it would get them laid. It did. They wrote about it... in clever and slithery ways... and that vibe had as much to do with what made rock n' roll as the music itself. Girls will always find fame hot, so there's still guys getting laid out there, but something went wrong, and now Gerard Way finds himself in 8 person orgies and then gets up, gets dressed, and writes about how depressed he is. I mostly blame emo... easily the most sexless sub-genre in rock n' roll history. Really, girls have left band guys since the beginning... deal with it. Emo songwriters remind me of that pathetic buddy that breaks up with his girl, so you take him to a club and he spends the whole night whining about it.

This is not to say there aren't some guys trying to inject some actual sex into their music... they're just really, really awful in going about it. When Vince Neil or Taime Downe or Rod Stewart or hell even Mark Farner sang about banging strippers, you could hear that they wanted to do her right (probably so she'd tell her stripper friends), then take provocative pictures of her in sexy poses, and then get right back in there for rounds 2 and 3 and... That's rock n' roll.
When Chad Kroeger sings about banging a stripper, he sounds like he wants to finish up, scratch his belly, roll over, fart, and go to sleep.

Chad, emo boys, et al, you should stick to Dancing With Yourselves.

Chris F'n Real.

Happy Birthday Elvis Costello!

On this date in 1954, Declan Patrick MacManus was born.

Thankfully, somewhere in the mid-70s someone decided he should change that name if he wanted to be a rock star.

I have many songwriting heroes, Butch Walker, Ric Ocasek, Paul Westerberg, Steve Earle, Andrew McMahon, the list goes on and on... Elvis Costello towers well over all of them as the most important person to me ever to write a song.

Now, 1954 was a LONG time ago, and over the past many years, Elvis Costello has been releasing very low key (but still brilliantly genre-bending) albums, marrying jazz divas, and hosting a snoozer of a TV show that I really WANTED to like it, but... I've never been the type to automatically be sold on something just because my hero had something to do with it and the show doesn't do it for me...

So really, the man has generally been aging as gracefully as humanly possible. (another thing I've never been a big fan of I s'pose)

1994, with the release of 'Brutal Youth' was the last time Elvis Costello assumed the role of the witty, angry, rocker that got the world's attention in the first place. What a GREAT album. (and considering his first record was released 17 years before that, that's pretty damn impressive).

That has NOTHING to do with his birthday... but really, what a record.

Actually... it can have something to do with his birthday... give YOURSELF a present on Elvis Costello's birthday... and check out:

'13 Steps Lead Down' or 'This Is Hell' or 'Sulky Girl' or 'Kinder Murder' or especially '20% Amnesia'.

There will come a time when I will talk about the truely classic early Elvis records... but for now, enjoy your day Elvis... even though every day is pretty much your day in my universe. \m/

Now that your picture's in the paper being rhythmically admired...

Chris F'n Real

A Chat With... Melissa Mannett

This Wednesday, August 26 at the Riddell Centre is a great chance to see a handful of local acts showcasing their own material. The lineup is about as diverse as you can get. There literally is something for everyone. The bill consists of JJ Voss (country/roots/rock), The League of One (progressive/metal), Melissa Mannett (pop) and Casey Stone (blues/rock). And all proceeds go towards cancer research so you really can’t go wrong!

I had a chance to catch up with one of the performers on the bill, Melissa Mannett. Melissa is currently enjoying a brush with fame since her song “Falling” has been getting some serious airplay on Z99, having been voted onto the Top 6 at 6 for a couple weeks in a row.

1. First things first... How cool is it to hear your song on the radio?

It’s unreal! I feel so lucky to hear my song right in there with Kelly Clarkson and Lady Gaga!

2. “Falling” is a song that has been kicking around for a few years. Can you explain the song’s origins?

Well, I was actually on a vacation in Greece in 2006 when I had the Lyric and melody ideas for the song. It’s another silly girly song about miscommunication in relationships and all sorts of emotions I was feeling about a boy, haha. So I took my ideas to Brad Prosko at B-rad studio, and we created the song ‘Falling’ which won a VH-1 songwriting award in 2007 and is now being played on Z99 here in Regina!

3. What was the first album you ever bought? Do you still own it?

I believe the first album I ever purchased on my own was ‘Jagged Little Pill’ by Alanis Morissette, on tape. And yes, I know exactly where it is!!

4. On your myspace page you do an interesting version of The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby.” Do you prefer Lennon or McCartney? And why?

Sir James Paul McCartney can have my vote for being a pop music songwriting genius! That guy knows how to write a sing-a-long!

5. What artist’s career would you most like to emulate, given the chance?

Alecia Moore, a.k.a. P!nk, has been a huge influence on my development as an artist. She is the real deal! I would be honored to be compared to her in any way.

6. While you are promoting yourself as a solo artist, you still masquerade (or should it be “Mascara”de?) as the singer in a local cover band Mascara. What do you find to be the biggest difference between performing your own songs as opposed to covers?

Well, honestly, I think the biggest difference right now is the way my confidence level changes! It’s risky business introducing an original song into a set of top 40 covers! However, when the crowd stays interested and keeps dancing, or even singing along, it’s the greatest satisfaction I think I’ve ever felt!!

http://www.myspace.com/melissamannett

...submitted by JJ

The League of One w/ Lest We Fail @ The Gaslight Saloon

Regina’s own The League of One played at The Gaslight Saloon two weekends ago. It’s been a while since I’ve seen these guys in action so I was excited to see Will Maeder and company dish out their pulverizing, high impact metal.

Another local band, Lest We Fail, opened for The League. Now I’ll be the first to admit that I am not an expert in the metal genre. I love loud, crunching guitars but I still like to hear some melody. Lest We Fail classify themselves as hardcore/thrash/metal, and they certainly sound hardcore. Easy listening music it ain’t! The musicianship displayed by the band members is phenomenal, with complex time structures, blazing riffs and thunderous drumming.

My only complaint comes with the vocals. Again, this comes from an outsider to the metal scene, but I just don’t understand the whole screaming/growling style that seems to be so rampant in metal nowadays. I can appreciate the vocal power it takes to sustain that vocal style, but for me it just sounds like a cross between Cookie Monster horking up a pork chop and Linda Blair from The Exorcist. I don’t expect to hear every lyric at a live show, but for all I know the band’s lyrics could be a diatribe about the genocide in Rwanda or else an ode to a butterfly. I just don’t get it. But I’ll plead ignorance to this subgenre of metal, so you can take my review for what it’s worth.

The League of One, on the other hand, are a metal band in the classic tradition of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. Will Maeder, the singer and guitarist, absolutely shreds on the guitar and has searing vocals. It’s hard to believe that so much raw power can come from a three piece band. These guys are a force to be reckoned with.

Make sure to check out The League of One, along with JJ Voss, Melissa Mannett and Casey Stone Wednesday, August 26 at the Riddell Centre.

http://www.myspace.com/lestwefailmusic

http://www.myspace.com/theleagueofone

... submitted by JJ

Chad Kichula - "Another Love" video

Chad Kichula is a talented singer/songwriter from Regina. His songs are based in roots, folk and rock and he sites Steve Earle and Bruce Springsteen as his primary influences. I have had the privilege of seeing him live on a few occasions, both solo with an acoustic guitar and with the Nancy-Ray Guns backing him up.

Chad is also a helluva nice guy (and apparently a glutton for punishment) since he is the only musician friend of mine kind enough to let me jam out a musical composition with a real band. I am pretty sure his ears were bleeding after we made a run through my song "Two Chord Song." But thankfully he was able to recover enough to put out an excellent album this year called Runners In The Night.

Here is a really cool video for "Another Love," directed by Nat Dart. Check it out. You'll be glad you did.

Another Love

http://myspace.com/chadkichula

...submitted by JJ

2009 Regina Folk Festival

August 7-9 marked the 40th anniversary of the Regina Folk Festival. While there were arguably not as many marquee names as in past years, the lineup was solid nonetheless. Sandra Butel and company deserve many kudos for putting on such a stellar festival year after year. The Folk Fest is usually the musical highlight of my year, at least in terms of local shows, and this year proved no exception. The Folk Fest is hands down the best music environment to be a part of. There is always so much positive communal energy in one place. Victoria Park is the perfect setting for a weekend of live music and, aside from Friday night, the weather was very cooperative.

I never had a chance to see every act that performed but I will give a rundown of some of the artists that caught my eye. So here we go.

FRIDAY NIGHT

Basia Bulat kicked off the proceedings with a perfect set, showcasing her strong, vibrant vocals while alternating between acoustic guitar, aytoharp and ukulele. Yes.. ukulele. Ever since Tiny Tim went tiptoeing through the tulips the ukulele hasn’t exactly been the hippest of instruments. But Basia makes the ukulele sexy again. A perfect opening to the Folk Fest.

http://www.myspace.com/basiabulat

Mark Berube and the Patriotic Few put on a very short but sweet teaser set. Piano is the main instrument of choice, but they round out their sound with flourishes of accordian, bass and guitar. I never had a chance to check out a full set from this act but I would definitely take the time to see them when they come to the Exchange on October 15.

http://www.myspace.com/markberubemusic

Plants and Animals were absolutely phenomenal. I’m embarrassed to say that I wasn’t familiar with their music before Friday night so I really had no idea what to expect. A good starting point with this band is the track “Bye Bye Bye” which sounds like a cross between Queen, the Flaming Lips and Sgt. Peppers-era Beatles. I am now a huge fan.

http://www.myspace.com/plantsandanimals

Delhi 2 Dublin were easily my favourite act of the weekend. Again I had absolutely no idea what to expect. The wonderful thing about festivals is that bands you may not give a chance otherwise can blow you away upon seeing them. This band is no exception. D2D are a band that fuses Celtic and Punjabi music with electronica, folk and hip hop. An Asian man wearing a kilt and playing a sitar only begins to describe this band. Most people think of folk festivals as a bunch of singer/songwriters strumming away on acoustic guitars but these guys and gal put on one helluva SHOW. They had the crowd dancing and grinning from ear to ear. Definitely my highlight of the weekend.

http://www.myspace.com/delhi2dublin

Unfortunately, with pleasant surprises must come big disappointments. And my biggest let down of the weekend was Iron and Wine, aka Sam Beam, who was the victim of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. He sounded great. He really did. And he started with one of my favourite songs ever: his cover of “Such Great Heights” by the Postal Service. However, I got very bored very quickly listening to a guy play sleepy acoustic tunes after such a high energy act as Delhi 2 Dublin. (I was so bored I actually left for a bit and ended up missing K-OS’s show.) If they swapped spots in the lineup it would’ve been perfect. Oh well. I’m still a fan. Just bad circumstances I guess.

http://www.myspace.com/ironandwine

SATURDAY

Chad Vangaalen played a fantastic set of upbeat acoustic pop. I wasn’t too familiar with his material beforehand, but songs like “City of Electric Light” and “Sing Me To Sleep” are great songs to listen to while washing the dishes. And I mean that as a compliment. He plays at the Exchange on October 8 so I plan on checking it out.

http://www.myspace.com/chadvangaalen

Royal Wood played a teaser set and was really impressive. He has a very rich, crooner voice and plays a mean piano. His set didn’t start off the way he wanted since his piano wasn’t plugged in so he began the set unwittingly singing acapella. However, being the pro that he is he just joked about it and carried on without even batting an eye.

http://www.myspace.com/royalwood

Socalled put on the most “interesting” show of the festivals, hands down. Socalled is the brainchild of rapper/accordian player/magician Josh Dolgin. He truly is a genre unto himself. I am still at a loss for words in trying to describe his band’s show. For starters, the man looks like a cross between Weird Al Yankovic, Billy Nye the Science Guy, a mad scientist and a pedophile (I guess there is no nice way of putting that...). Let’s just say he looks eccentric. His band is extremely tight and sound phenomenal. If you put hip hop, circus music, Frank Zappa and a clown in a blender you might get close to describing this band’s sound. And I guess he performed magic tricks for the kid’s stage on Sunday. Insert your own jokes at will.

http://www.myspace.com/socalled

Bedouin Soundclash really impressed me this year. I saw them a couple years ago and was very underwhelmed, so their performance was a pleasant surprise. Maybe their new drummer and horn players had a hand in rounding out their sound this year. At any rate, their unabashed blend of Clash-y punk and ska sounded great outside on a nice Saturday night.

http://www.myspace.com/bedouinsoundclash

SUNDAY

Volcanoless in Canada put on a really fun show on the Scarth Street stage in the afternoon. Their brand of indie/acoustic/pop/rock was definitely one of my highlights. These guys have so much energy onstage, spewing witty banter between songs and bringing out a drum set into the crowd for their last song. These guys are definitely worth checking out if you have the chance. And they’re from Saskatchewan so what more could you ask for????

http://www.myspace.com/volcanolessincanada

Loudon Wainwright III was simply brilliant. To be honest, I’m more familiar with his acting (Knocked Up, Big Fish), and his offspring’s music (Rufus and Martha) than his music, but he seemed like an artist that I HAD to see if I had the chance. And he put on a great show. It was just him and an acoustic guitar, but it was all he needed. He has a wicked, biting, sardonic sense of humour and knows how to get a crowd eating out of the palm of his hands. His song about the airport worker who caused him to go without his guitar for a couple of days was worth the price of admission alone.

http://www.myspace.com/lw3lw3

Corb Lund capped off the weekend with a bang with his old school brand of country music. If every contemporary country artist was this good, I would be a HUGE country fan. Mr. Lund is nothing fancy: just good ol’ literate rootsy/folksy/country tunes.

http://www.myspace.com/officialcorblund

Phew! That’s it for this year’s Fest. Unfortunately for me, the end of Folk Fest pretty much signifies the end of summer. But what a way to end the summer! Other people may feel AC/DC is ending the summer of 2009 but I'll just agree to disagree. ;)

Once again, Sandra Butel and her crew deserve a big thanks for putting on such a wonderful event. Can't wait for next year. Perhaps they could book Tom Waits next year. One can dream, right?

...submitted by JJ

KISS is S'toon November 10th

http://www.livedaily.com/news/19930.html

Well Ok, Paul and Gene and two guys no one really cared about dressed up as two guys people do care about in S'toon November 10th...

Magical.

In an effort to lend some legitimacy to the tour, there's at least a new studio album, 'Sonic Boom' set to drop October 6th. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it'll be better than 'Psycho Circus'... because man, it's it NOT, Paul and Gene should have to do time in more than just an over-scripted reality show prison. They barely ever let Ace and Peter play on the albums anyway, generally opting for session guys and studio players, so the album should still sound "vintage KISS" even without "vintage KISS" members.

Still... the tour itself... I'll be passing on that one... Maybe Ace isn't the best guitar player, Peter Criss is about as vanilla as they come as well... but there's something to be said for a band's "mystique". Some bands can remove and insert new players (Oasis, Pearl Jam, etc)... even new front men (AC/DC, Van Halen, etc) and not be missing anything...

KISS is not one of these bands. It's not like all the albums they put out with Eric Carr or Vinnie Vincent or Bruce Kulick or blah blah blah are awful but...

Tell me U2 is still U2 without Larry Mullen Jr. and The Edge. Hell even without Larry Mullen Jr. and Adam Clayton... no way.

Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer get to do the verbatim act and wear the actual clothes of the men they replaced.. and it's still not enough.

Rock on, I don't wanna be the president.

Chris F'n Real

Frigging AC/DC

Doesn't this picture pretty much say it all?

Can you believe it dude??? Can ya???? The day is finally here! Man, I thought this day would NEVER get here... but here we are... right on dude, this is gonna rock dude, it's gonna be really rocking hard and rocking out dude! Angus dude! Fuckin' ANGUS!

I was going to re-post my AC/DC piece from last week... but nah. It's here for any interested: http://virb.com/chrisrealetc/posts/text/4371552

There's new ground to cover on the topic anyway... as tonight is "the night".

Turns out... AC/DC can actually have a positive impact. Not to the genre of rock n' roll or the art of songwriting, (as they've proven for three decades), but to the community. The Regina Leader Post today reports that tonight's concert should bring in approx. 10-15 million dollars to city merchants. Between hotels, cabs, restaurants, etc... that's a lot of coin. (word has it sales of toothpaste and deodorant are not anticipating any kind of spike though)

So... AC/DC, if you're helping out my city, and I personally don't have to deal with your music, then, I guess we're cool... for today and today ONLY. (dude)

Still... I gotta re-post my AC/DC personality test Tweet:

Chris_Real Happy AC/DC week! AC/DC personality test: Think of your fave AC/DC song... Got it? Ok now click here: http://bit.ly/JgtK1

Stay thirsty, friends.

Chris F'n Real

Monday FUNishment - The Inaugural Edition

G'morn friends, lovers, rock stars and spazzes,

Welcome to the first edition of Monday FUNishment

To kick off our new weekly feature, instead of talking about a band I've never liked, let's make it more challenging, and talk about a band I once LOVED.

Monday FUNishment round 1 - The Offspring

ding ding ding

This past June I had a chance to finally see this band... an hour after their show started, I finally had a chance to leave this band's "show".

Now, when Offspring first came to my attention back in high school, I was instantly hooked. The surf rock guitar riffing and Dexter Holland's soaring raspy vocal on 'Come Out and Play' shook me to my core... it sounded... scary, like good punk rock should the first time around.

Admittedly, at first the "punk purist" in me, the dude with a 5 disc CD changer that always had 'Never Mind the Bollocks' and 'Combat Rock' in there (and still does), didn't really dig the "neo-punk" thing. No term with the word "neo-" in front of it tends to be positive... neo-grunge, neo-nazi, neo-Con... blech.

Example, I didn't really "get" Green Day at first, I actually thought they were making fun of the genre... it took seeing them live to understand. To this day, in amongst the acoustic power ballads and cliched fight anthems, there's still a punk band in there... somewhere.

Offspring could've suffered the same fate with me... and then I found their cover of The Damned's 'Smash It Up'. Sold.

They COULD have suffered the same fate... and after seeing them this summer, I know they SHOULD have suffered the same fate.

My last project always used to play 'Self Esteem'... it got the band jacked, the crowd jacked... and allowed me to spit out a 3 minute intro diatribe about the girl I'd just broken up with (which oddly enough, always happened right before leaving on a road trip).

To welcome my new project, Rhymes With Fun, into the world, we included it in our set at a festival we played this summer... it was my first time playing it since seeing the guys that wrote it do it... all I could think, "Well, at least WE still do it right." ;-)

Seems to me, aging punk rockers have three choices:

1 - Double down and go for the political jugular, and become MORE relevant as their careers advance. (see: Day, Green and Religion, Bad)

2 - Accept their role as "elder statesmen" and revel in the ridiculousness while celebrating your past accomplishments. (see: Pistols, Sex)

3 - Put out uninspired album after uninspired album and support them with tours that prove any fire you once had in your belly and any respect you once had for a genre you helped define is long gone.

Guess which one Offspring falls under?

'Ignite', 'Smash' and 'Ixnay On the Hombre' will always be great records to me... and hell, I even liked the song 'Pretty Fly (for a white guy)'... it had a certain.... charm... I guess. At least there was SOME creativity and personallity that went into that song.

And that was the last of either we'd ever see from Dexter and Noodles and Co.

Old punk rockers never die... but maybe some should look into it.

Sincerely,

Chris F'n Real

Coming Attractions...

By next week, this spot will be occupied by a group of good buddies writing for a site dedicated to our only common life long love.

We swear to talk about the music, the whole music, and nothing but the music... so help us um... Bowie.

This is 4RMUSIC.

This is for our music.

The contributors to this site all have one thing in common, they are all in some way involved with music on a professional level... they are all big time music fans yes, but they also bring their perspective from the inside of the biz. From karaoke hosts to cover bands to touring original projects to DJs to...

You'll see show reviews, album reviews, club reviews, opinion pieces, Top 5 (or 10, or 26) lists... much of it with a Regina/Saskatchewan slant.

Thanks much for checking us out... our target launch date is 8/26/09.

Stay tuned... it's about to get Real... and Ramone... and Ruda... and FoRd... and WaRd... and... et ceteRa... and... RAWK. \m/